"Buy 1 for yourself and get the chance to sell your friends and family 5 and get your downline started!" We examine the multi-level marketing industry, where only the people who come up with the ideas make any money, and everybody else is left unhappy, broke, and tired of reading scripts and selling overpriced vitamins and similarly worthless products. Includes Global Prosperity, Pinnacle Quest International, IRS Codebusters, Stratia, and other new Global Prosperity scams.

On March 16, 2011 In Orlando Visalus CEO Blake Mallen had a great dinner meeting with Hulk Hogan & his partners Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey (of the Wonder Years) talking strategy concerning taking Body By Vi Challenge to a whole new level.

Whatcha gonna do when the Body By vi Challenge runs all over you?

It’s official!

Hulk Hogan has joined the Body by Vi Challenge!

Yeah Brother!

And in related news,
Adult Film Company Releasing ‘Hogan Family’ Porn Parody

We can't make this stuff up. Adult film company Third Degree Films is releasing a parody movie based on Hulk Hogan's family titled, the "Official Hogan Knows Best Porn Parody."

The movie has already been shot, with several well-known industry stars playing the roles of Hulk, Linda, Brooke and Nick.

Here is the official synopsis from Third Degree Films:

"In this pants-wettingly funny parody, Hulk Hogan has a lot more on his hands than just his wife and kids!

"Follow the nation’s favorite wrestling hero and his super-tanned reality TV family as they heat up their Florida mansion with moves you won’t see in the ring! After downing a bucket of steroids and Viagra, the Hulkster calls a hooker to calm him down, giving new meaning to the ‘choke hold’ and ‘piledriver!’

Meanwhile Brooke catches hell for wearing a slutty shirt, which doesn’t seem to bother her boyfriend Bill, and Nick entertains Brooke’s horny friend Lexi, leaving his nerdy pal Linc to get it on with Linda!

With this sex-crazed family all living under one roof, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a ring-side seat!"

I learned the hard way that steroids are very dangerous. I've had six knee operations, and tore my rotator cuff in my shoulder during the hysterical strength incident (threw an ATV off a badly injured family member) and still wouldn't use them, since they do make bones and ligaments more brittle and I break easily enough. Then I discovered I was allergic to mangoes by getting the worst case of poison ivy ever, all over my face, which nearly drove me insane with the itching, and the two doctors clucking over it injected me with a big dose of 'roids. It cleared up the burning pustules in a hurry, and also made me bat-sh*t crazy for about 60 days.

The most horrid part--I knew it was the drug, and I still couldn't turn it off. With my particular body chemistry, I simply was in a state of fury, angry at the whole universe, and channeling Harlan Ellison.

Goodness is about what you do. Not what you pray to. T. Pratchett
Always be a moving target. L.M. Bujold

Hulk Hogan – long considered to be THE greatest Professional Wrestler in history, is a Promoter of the Body By Vi Challenge, and the next round of Challenge Winners will have the opportunity to hang with the Hulkster in Hollywood!

Suppose that depends on what their definition of "THE greatest Professional Wrestler in history" is. Putting people in the seats, likely. But as a pure wrestler, not a chance. The guy probably knew three holds tops.

Wonder also what exactly "Promoter of the Body By Vi Challenge" means.

ViSalus goes to lengths to make it clear that: "ViSalus management and Hulk Hogan both deny any payments were made for celebrity endorsements".

So we're to believe the Hulkster is helping promote ViSalus out of the goodness of his heart? Or maybe he's out trying to build a downline?

Some people might not be aware who actually controls ViSalus.

GREENWICH, Conn., April 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Blyth, Inc. (NYSE: BTH), a leading multi-channel designer and marketer of home fragrance products, home decor products and household convenience items, today announced that it has closed on the second phase of its acquisition of ViSalus Sciences and now owns 57.5% of the company.

Regarding Blyth gaining controlling interest of Visalus, Ryan Blair, a Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ViSalus, had this to say:

"The Blyth partnership has been an enormous benefit to ViSalus, with financial and management resources supporting our significant growth in 2010 and our strategic growth objectives for 2011."

What that means is that not only does Blythe Inc. really decides what happens with ViSalus and what changes that they want to make to the company in the future, but it also means that ViSalus has been given a significant capital injection for marketing and awareness, like paying for celebrity endorsements.

So why don't they just come out and admit the Hulkster is a paid spokesperson instead of denying it?

The coolest thing is ALL of our celebrity promoters are not getting paid to say things nice about the challenge, they are getting paid JUST LIKE US – as promoters of the Body by Vi Challenge!! It should definitely say something that celebrities are CHOOSING VISALUS rather than ViSalus having to go out and pay for them!

Huh?

No doubt, Hulk Hogan is focused on nutrition, weight and fitness, and by looking at recent photographs at close to age 60, is in tip top physical shape. He dons a muscular physique with washboard abs. Hulk Hogan is just one of MANY pro athletes to see and feel the results of the phenomenal Visalus protein shakes and the Body By Vi Challenge products.

Tip top physical shape? The guy's a physical wreck from his years in the ring and steroid abuse. Hulk has admitted himself that "I used to be 6ft 7, but after knee, neck and back surgeries I'm now about 6ft 4".

The time line is interesting here. We're told...

On March 16, 2011 In Orlando Visalus CMO Blake Mallen had a great dinner meeting with Hulk Hogan & his partners Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey (of the Wonder Years, who else used to watch that show as a kid?) talking strategy concerning taking Body By Vi Challenge to a whole new level.

But if you listen to Hogan's Jul 22, 2011 edition of Ask Hogan on YouTube, he answers a question about his diet.

Basically what he says is that he weighs 285 lbs. nowadays, down from his 330 lb steroid era physique. He also says he eats just about everything and doesn't diet. Only he doesn't eat too much at night. Nothing in there about ViSalus, which would have been a great place to put a commercial if it was true.

He's likely off script and speaking the truth in that segment of "Ask Hogan" - no kayfabe here.

Doc Bunkum wrote:Some people might not be aware who actually controls ViSalus.

GREENWICH, Conn., April 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Blyth, Inc. (NYSE: BTH), a leading multi-channel designer and marketer of home fragrance products, home decor products and household convenience items, today announced that it has closed on the second phase of its acquisition of ViSalus Sciences and now owns 57.5% of the company.

Regarding Blyth gaining controlling interest of Visalus, Ryan Blair, a Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ViSalus, had this to say:

"The Blyth partnership has been an enormous benefit to ViSalus, with financial and management resources supporting our significant growth in 2010 and our strategic growth objectives for 2011."

What that means is that not only does Blythe Inc. really decides what happens with ViSalus and what changes that they want to make to the company in the future, but it also means that ViSalus has been given a significant capital injection for marketing and awareness, like paying for celebrity endorsements.

If you haven't seen them already, you may be interested in the pair of posts I put up discussing the audited 2010 Blyth financial statements: MLM Income Disclosures: Blyth/Visalus I posted a link to the actual financial statements on that thread.

Overall, ViSalus' corporate worth plummeted in 2010. Blyth wrote down or wrote off the value of the ViSalus trademark and all the ViSalus intangible assets.

In a nutshell, I believe Blyth increased its ownership share of Visalus for two reasons:

1) The volume of distributor recruiting (330% increase) more than made up for the major drop-off in sales-per-distributor (40% decrease).
2) Looking at other parts of the financial statement notes (which I didn't post) there were already other significant related party ties between the two companies, which put Blyth into a "protecting its own interests" mode.

"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." - Robert Heinlein